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Snow. The word itself can elicit reactions of sheer joy to sheer terror and any emotions in between depending on who you are. After the weather this past week, it is evident that we have a great crew of city employees who worked tirelessly to make our roads passable again. A huge thanks goes out to them!

For our household the snow was an incredible gift. I know there are many families like us in this town who feel like from the time the alarm goes off in the morning to the time our heads hit the pillow at night we only see each other briefly at breakfast and dinner. At our house that schedule had been going on for many months it seems. Then came the snow.

Thursday morning we woke up to a nice blanket of snow on the ground and school had been canceled. We had a breakfast of blueberry pancakes and then went out to work on clearing the driveway. We spent the day together as a family and enjoyed every moment of it.

Friday was equally wonderful. Dani and I decided that it would be a no-screen day, meaning we wouldn’t watch TV, be on the computers, or use our phones for entertainment until sunset. In 2011 we bought a sled anticipating snow that never came in 2012. So we finally had the chance to use it. We had an absolute blast! The smiles on our faces were huge and I think we laughed the whole time.

The fun continued into Saturday with another no-screen day and we had time to build a snowman and have a boys vs. girls snowball fight (the boys won!). Then we walked through the neighborhood and the kids climbed the plowed snow piles that were around the hospital.

By the time Sunday rolled around we were all still enjoying being with each other and hoping for another snow day on Monday.

I know that not everyone gets to be with their families when it snows. I watched as our neighbor finished working all day only to get home in the dark to clear his driveway. A better neighbor would have done that for him, sorry.

But for those of us who could be with our kids or grandkids I hope it was an opportunity to hit the pause button on our busy lives and enjoy being with one another. We cram a lot into our weeks here in Marion and sometimes to our detriment as families.

Let’s not wait for the next major snowfall to spend time together as families. I know after the experience we had it is evident that we need to build this time into our schedules, even if it is only a couple days spread out over the month. It sounds clichéd to say, “carpe diem.” But it is a timeless phrase, we must seize the moments of our lives and live them fully, for if we don’t we will have missed them.